Peter Karp, Sue Foley team up for album of blues-rock duets

It began with a casual suggestion. Blues singer-songwriter Peter Karp had written a duet for his 2007 album “Shadows and Cracks” and his manager suggested that blues woman Sue Foley might be good for the female part.

Foley -- who had met Karp just once before, in passing -- recorded the song, which didn’t make the album. And she remained in touch with Karp when they both hit the road again with their respective bands. The e-mail messages and letters they sent to each other are at the heart of their new joint album, “He Said She Said.”

“Early last year, we took those letters and turned them into songs,” says Karp, who will headline the first night of next weekend’s Centenary Mini-Blues Festival with Foley (Monkees member Peter Tork and his Shoe Suede Blues band will close night two). “I was going to put a different record out and Sue was going to put a different record out, but we realized that we had this wealth of stuff that was very honest and real. We decided that this was a lot more interesting and relevant to our lives, so we put it out.”
The songs are mostly about falling in love, feeling isolated and longing for someone from a distance.

“We were both going through a lot of stuff,” says Foley. “I was in Europe a lot and going through some pretty difficult times on the road. At the same time Peter was on the road, going through America.”

A former Cresskill resident who now lives in Nashville, Tenn., Karp will spend most of the next year touring with Ottawa native Foley. They will play songs from their respective repertoires, as well as the “He Said She Said” material, using Karp’s backing group (bassist Niles Terrat and drummer Mike Catapano).

“It’s really our band now,” says Karp. “It’s a new day.”

Duets, of course, are common in the world of country music. But they’re much more rare in blues.

“I don’t know any project that’s quite like this, especially in the blues world,” says Foley. “This is so much based around the writing of the songs, and the stories behind how we got the ideas for them, and we really bring that into the show, too. We like to talk about the stories behind how we got these ideas.”

The talking won’t overshadow the music, though.

“There’s also a very energetic electric element, ‘cause we both come from that world,” says Foley. “Peter’s a great slide guitar player, and I play a lot of electric guitar. He also plays piano, so there will be a lot of variation as far as what we’re doing instrumentally.”
Karp adds that people don’t always think of blues performers as songwriters, “but if you go back and look at a lot of blues history, it’s really ripe with fantastic songs -- simple songs but powerful songs. I don’t think you can ignore the things that blues have given birth to, like Bob Dylan, so we come from both of those sides -- the singer-songwriter side as well as the blues side. And we love to raise the roof.”Jay Lustig may be reached at jlustig@starledger.com or (973) 392-5850.